IndyCar GP Indy: O’Ward tops practice times after Palou paces FP1

O'Ward pipped Chip Ganassi Racing's reigning champion Palou to the top spot by just 0.029s to continue the fine form he showed by winning last time out at Barber Motorsports Park with a 1m09.783s lap.

He was just 0.058s quicker than Colton Herta (Andretti Autosport) in third, with defending Indy GP winner Rinus VeeKay fourth for Ed Carpenter Racing 0.142s adrift.

After early red flags caused by Dalton Kellett and Jimmie Johnson finding the gravel, Herta had set the fastest time on primaries.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan's Jack Harvey was the first to set a time on the Firestone softer alternate tyres, lapping the 2.439-mile track in 1min10.097s.

Then O'Ward's team-mate Felix Rosenqvist shaved 0.042s off that to claim top spot for not even half a minute before VeeKay went faster again with a 1m09.926s lap.

VeeKay's hold on top spot was also brief, as Palou and O’Ward delivered their best laps of the weekend so far to take the top two slots.

Their times remained unbeaten to the end of the session, with Herta moving into third late on ahead of VeeKay - who had languished down in 21st after FP1.

RLL's Christian Lundgaard set the fifth-quickest time at the scene of his debut in last year's second visit to the Indy road course, when he qualified an excellent fourth.

Romain Grosjean, who took his first IndyCar pole at last year's Indy GP for Dale Coyne's team, was the second-quickest of the Andretti contingent in sixth ahead of VeeKay's team-mate Conor Daly and Rosenqvist.

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Photo by: Brett Farmer / Motorsport Images

Simon Pagenaud drove his Meyer Shank Racing entry into ninth ahead of former Penske team-mate Will Power, who has five wins and five pole positions on the Indianapolis road course. He completed the top 10, a scant 0.007s ahead of team-mate Scott McLaughlin.

The earlier session, topped by Palou, was red-flagged with just over 90 seconds remaining of the allotted 45 minutes when Pagenaud's team-mate Helio Castroneves spun at Turn 13.

When the session restarted, it looked unlikely that anyone could get their tyres up to temperature soon enough to make a difference to the fastest times, but Palou and team-mate Marcus Ericsson strapped on new tyres to snatch the first and sixth fastest times.

That allowed Palou to displace impressive rookie Callum Ilott (Juncos-Holinger), the Briton using the extra set of tyres allowed for rookies in the opening session to sneak ahead of Power by 0.068s with three minutes to go for what was then the top spot.

The Briton lapped the 2.439-mile 14-turn road course in 1m10.459s, a time he failed to improve on in the later session where he ended up 19th, just ahead of six-time champion Scott Dixon (Ganassi).

Power ended the opening session third ahead of Graham Rahal (RLL), Rosenqvist and Ericsson.

Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya, who will make his first road course IndyCar start since this event last year, ended the day 24th and 1.2s off the pace in the third Arrow McLaren SP entry.

Qualifying begins at 4.00pm local (Eastern) time.

IndyCar Indy GP - FP2 times

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	18	1'09.783
2	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	24	1'09.813	0.029
3	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	18	1'09.842	0.058
4	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	19	1'09.926	0.142
5	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	22	1'10.000	0.216
6	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	19	1'10.016	0.232
7	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	20	1'10.039	0.255
8	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	18	1'10.054	0.270
9	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	20	1'10.056	0.272
10	Will Power	Team Penske	21	1'10.063	0.279
11	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	23	1'10.079	0.295
12	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	19	1'10.097	0.313
13	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	23	1'10.143	0.359
14	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	18	1'10.208	0.424
15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	22	1'10.216	0.432
16	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	12	1'10.261	0.477
17	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	19	1'10.269	0.485
18	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	17	1'10.271	0.487
19	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	19	1'10.474	0.690
20	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	24	1'10.504	0.720
21	Kyle Kirkwood	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	20	1'10.531	0.747
22	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	20	1'10.552	0.768
23	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD	17	1'10.705	0.921
24	Juan Pablo Montoya	Arrow McLaren SP	9	1'11.017	1.233
25	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	16	1'11.206	1.422
26	Tatiana Calderon	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	19	1'11.393	1.609
27	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	22	1'11.693	1.910
View full results

IndyCar Indy GP - FP1 times

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	18	1'10.455
2	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	19	1'10.459	0.003
3	Will Power	Team Penske	17	1'10.527	0.072
4	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	16	1'10.612	0.157
5	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	15	1'10.710	0.255
6	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	18	1'10.712	0.256
7	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	13	1'10.745	0.290
8	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	1'10.781	0.326
9	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	13	1'10.791	0.335
10	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	15	1'10.835	0.379
11	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	12	1'10.858	0.402
12	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	17	1'10.859	0.404
13	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	18	1'10.863	0.407
14	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	17	1'10.885	0.429
15	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	17	1'10.890	0.435
16	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	17	1'10.934	0.478
17	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	15	1'10.954	0.498
18	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD	20	1'10.970	0.514
19	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	15	1'11.000	0.545
20	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	18	1'11.006	0.550
21	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	13	1'11.072	0.616
22	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	15	1'11.188	0.733
23	Kyle Kirkwood	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	16	1'11.586	1.131
24	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	22	1'11.660	1.204
25	Juan Pablo Montoya	Arrow McLaren SP	14	1'12.007	1.551
26	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	18	1'12.209	1.753
27	Tatiana Calderon	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	11	1'12.436	1.980
View full results